CALLUM MCGRATH

Callum McGrath is an artist and researcher currently based in Naarm/Melbourne. McGrath’s work applies experimental archival and historiographic approaches to reconceptualise methods of queer memorialisation. His research-led projects resist the hegemonic and institutional structures of archival repositories and instead work toward methods of queer remembrance where queer temporalities and futurity can take precedent.

Your practice disrupts typical engagement with the past and challenges the aesthetics of public memorialisation to make way for a speculative queer community. What is the significance of forming such a community and what interests you in particular about expressing these ideas through acts of remembrance?
Hmm.. big question… I am interested in the ways in which queerness can be used as a methodology to consider the challenges and complexities of representing, presenting, documenting, and archiving the past. I think each work I make deals with history in a way that is against the hegemonic systems that deal with and organise the past.  As much as my work is about remembering and acknowledging the past, I think the work is equal parts against history or opposed to its linear and temporal unfoldings. For me, the queerness of this methodology lies in its resistance to history as something that is linear and or a closed loop. I think by looking at queer history (which is just one example of the kind of marginalised past this methodology can be applied to) we can see the destructive and corrosive nature of the past.  History for me is negotiated through a complex web of comprises, truth, lies, mistakes ect. Take for instance the work at Metro, as much as this work is framed as a historiographic project, I think in many ways it’s intentionally failed. It refuses to give away details and compromises truth, instead, it is a fragmented cinematic failed picture of a violent past that continues to secrete/ leak into the future. 

What is particularly interesting to you about the case of Ross Warren?
The Ross Warren case has been of interest to me for quite some time, I have wanted to make a work about it for many years but never really known how. What is interesting for me is not the particular circumstances that happened which is of course awful but instead, him being a semi-media figure and that being something that we can cling to. Unlike many of the other queer people who were murdered, Ross’s image exists recorded on film. Particularly significant for me knowing I wanted to make a video work. That said, part of the reason in the video it included fragments from other incidences from a range of historical time periods is precisely because I didn’t want to just priorities the case of Ross’s. I think this is where I am attempting to negotiate to complexities of the past and utilise an experimental approach to re-telling a history? 

How do you hope people will engage with this work?
Well, I think there are two mains goals for this project, firstly I think it’s important for the public to become aware of this history and engage with it in a way that is on an emotional/ affective level. Something that I think public memorial spaces often lack. Secondly, I really want this work to generate conversations around histories problems; specifically the complexities of remembrance and memorialisation. Thinking through different and experimental approaches to telling the past that can do interesting and important things in regards to temporalities and a de-linear or even messy image of the past. I think the work pulls, stretches, and distorts time, in a way that doesn’t attend to hegemonic systems, and reproductive futurism; a methodology that is in many ways indebted to writing on queer temporalities.  

ARTIST EVENT

THE WEATHERMAN
By Callum McGrath

Tue 6 – Sat 24 Jul, 2021

CLOSING EVENT
4-6pm, Sat 24 Jul

WHERE

Gallery One, Metro Arts

GALLERY HOURS

Tue 6 – Fri 9 Jul 7am – 4.30pm
Sat 10 Jul 10am – 9pm
Sun 11 Jul Closed
Mon 12 Jul 7am – 4.30pm
Tue 13 Jul 7am – 4.30 pm
Wed 14 – Fri 16 Jul 7am – 9pm
Sat 17 Jul 10am – 9pm
Sun 18 Jul 5pm – 9pm
Mon 19 – Fri 23 Jul 7am – 4.30pm
Sat 24 Jul 10am – 9pm
Sun 25 Jul Closed

FREE

DEBBIE TAYLOR-WORLEY

With an interest in art sparked in fourth grade, it wasn’t until the birth of her daughters that Debbie Taylor Worley started a journey to reconnect to her heritage, resulting in studying art as a mature age student. Her new exhibition Wun-ga-li Ngurrambaa Winanga-li honours her connection to Gamilaraay country.

What inspired you to become an artist?
I’ve had an interest in art ever wince the 4^th grade when my teacher, Mr Smith, put a pineapple on his desk and told us all to draw it. After seeing our results he said, “draw what you see, not what you think you see”. From that moment, along with the stash of art books dad had in the hallway cupboard, I was fascinated with creative processes.

In my mid 40’s, I finally had the opportunity to attend art college and was motivated and inspired by the artists that taught within the unit, such as Jennifer Herd, Vernin Ah Kee and Lauri Neilsen. I was introduced to new ways of seeing art and it gave what I was producing greater purpose.

How would you describe your art to someone unfamiliar to it?
It’s everchanging and multidisciplinary, working mainly with clay and textiles. However, common themes that run throughout my work are the dendroglyphs or tree carvings of the Gamilaraay nation and female empowerment.

Using the motifs of the tree carvings provides a link between contemporary practice and my cultural roots. The motifs go hand in hand with images and sculptures to draw attention to the divine feminine and our mother the earth.

I prefer to use materials that are as natural and connected to country as possible. For example, I forage bullrushes when the season is right for weaving fibres, and use ochre from country to colour canvases laid within the landscape.

Your art is influenced by “listening to country”, can you explain how this practice works?
The Gamilaraay word Winanga-li describes a process of listening, hearing, thinking, remembering. It involves sitting in a place and space of deep contemplation and hearing what nature is telling you. It is a way of connecting deeply on a spiritual level. Just as an artist may stare at a blank canvas for days before applying paint to it, I sit on Gamilaraay country and let it speak to me, translating the message intuitively onto the canvas.

What can you tell us about your exhibition at Metro Arts?
This body of work was made at various sites on Gamilaraay country, that are significant in regards to Gamilaraay spirituality and my childhood memories. A trip back to country was made possible by the Windmill trust Scholarship that was awarded to me in 2020. As a result of listening to country, each canvas has been produced beside an important body of water and covered with the surrounding earth, clays and ochres. It highlights the responsibility of Gamilaraay women to protect sacred waters. I believe my ancestors are guiding me on my journey of reconnection to culture and country.

Included in the exhibition is a video work by my young Nephew, Jackson, that documents portions of the journey and the art making process.

Wun-ga-li Ngurrambaa Winanga-li  | 6 – 24 July | Gallery One, Metro Arts
Find out more about the exhibition here.

ARTIST EVENT

WUN-GA-LI NGURRAMBAA WINANGA-LI
By Debbie Taylor-Worley

Tue 6 – Sat 24 Jul, 2021

ARTIST TALK
3pm, Sat 24 Jul

CLOSING EVENT
4-6pm, Sat 24 Jul

WHERE

Gallery One, Metro Arts

GALLERY HOURS

Tue 6 – Fri 9 Jul 7am – 4.30pm
Sat 10 Jul 10am – 9pm
Sun 11 Jul Closed
Mon 12 Jul 7am – 4.30pm
Tue 13 Jul 7am – 4.30 pm
Wed 14 – Fri 16 Jul 7am – 9pm
Sat 17 Jul 10am – 9pm
Sun 18 Jul 5pm – 9pm
Mon 19 – Fri 23 Jul 7am – 4.30pm
Sat 24 Jul 10am – 9pm
Sun 25 Jul Closed

FREE

THE HIVE COLLECTIVE

Brisbane’s newly formed Hive Collective – Heather Fairbairn, Heidi Manché and Kate Wild – present their inaugural trio of works. The series places women’s stories in the spotlight and showcases Australia’s most daring female playwrights and creatives.

You each have very extensive backgrounds in writing, directing and producing theatre. What inspired you to team up and form The Hive Collective in 2020?
The idea came about in 2019. While we were each successfully making work as individuals, we realised that, as a collective, we could be so much stronger, more productive, more resilient. By supporting each other and sharing resources and tasks we can also be more courageous. Bolder. Make things happen that would seem impossible as individuals.

You’ll be presenting your inaugural trio of works at Metro Arts, how did this partnership come about?
Once we’d hit on the idea of forming a collective of independent theatre makers and curating a season of work together, we knew Metro Arts was the ideal partner for our first project. With Metro Arts’ ongoing commitment to independent theatre and, in particular, Jo’s championing of female artists, we hoped Hive’s model would find support at Edward Street. To both find that support and be invited to take part in Metro’s first year in their new home has been crucial in allowing Hive to arrive onto the scene in a robust and joyful way.

What would you say you each bring to the table? Are there areas where your approach and interests typically intersect?
Heidi is a brilliant relationship builder – she’s genuinely interested in people and what they have to offer, so she’s great at making connections and inviting people in. Heather is meticulous and rigorous, and with her experience working with Europe’s leading theatre companies, she pushes us to aim higher and reach further. Kate helps us stay focussed, nurturing Hive’s long-term vision whilst keeping a keen eye on the details.

What we love about the Hive model is that it allows each of us as individual artists to make our own work in our own unique way. But an offer from one of us – a suggestion for a play or an idea for devising new work – will inspire the others to work beyond our usual comfort zones.

Lastly, how did you choose these particular works? What can audiences expect – is there a common thread or theme?
We wanted Hive’s first season to shine a light on the brilliant and original work currently being written by Australian women. Each of the plays is engaging, vibrant, timely and, in its own unique way, unconventional. When we looked at the plays side-by-side, we also found that each of them was brimming with energy and life. As if something long suppressed was now ready to be released – sexuality, violence, imagination, wild humour. Female creativity let loose!

ARTIST EVENTS

THE BULL, THE MOON, AND THE CORONET OF STARS
By Van Badham | Directed By Heidi Manché
17 – 27 Feb, 2021

ELEKTRA/ORESTES
By Jada Alberts and Anne-Louise Sarks
Directed by Heather Fairbairn
3 – 13 Mar, 2021

CONVICTION
By Zoey Dawson | Directed by Kate Wild
17 – 27 – Mar, 2021

WHERE

New Benner Theatre, Metro Arts

Art Starts Here: 40 Years of Metro Arts

Metro Arts – an independent arts centre at the heart of Brisbane – is about to start a new chapter at its new home in West End. But this is just one of many changes this resilient organisation has made its own.

For 40 years, Metro Arts inhabited 109 Edward Street, a six-storey building built in 1889, which has served as warehouse for household goods, biscuits, hats, supplies during World War II and – later, government offices and, finally, Brisbane Community Arts Centre.

On the level that was once the Immigration Department, artists have created multilingual works. In the former drug squad HQ, ‘art’ has become indistinguishable from ‘party’. In the old Electoral Office, artists have voted again and again for their community – with their time, energy, resources and (when available) money. To be at 109 Edward Street wasn’t just to make art. It was to make mistakes, to mend and to make do.

No record can capture every moment – every coffee shared, every spark ignited, every alliance formed, every risk taken, every show rehearsed, exhibited or staged. But through the voices of over 40 Metro community members, Art Starts Here: 40 Years of Metro Arts charts the living history of Metro Arts, from its gutsy DIY beginnings to its bright future.

TITLE Art Starts Here: 40 Years of Metro Arts

SOFT COVER 171 PAGES

RELEASE DATE 11 September, 2020

RRP $65

PUBLISHED BY Metro Arts

EDITED BY Zenobia Frost

DESIGNED BY Sean Dowling and Ashleigh Jacobsen

FEATURING CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
Wesley Enoch, Robert Hughes, Edwin Relf, Liz Burcham, Penny Everingham, Robert Kronk, Amy-Clare McCarthy, Gemma Smith, Josh Milani, Hannah Gartside & Autumn Royale, Nic Holas (Restaged Histories Project), Brian Lucas, Margi Brown Ash, Thom Browning (Imaginary Theatre), Younghee Park (Company Bad), Daniel Evans (The Good Room), Lafe Charlton & Roxanne McDonald, and Fraser Corfield. In addition, Meagan Streader and Vernon Ah Kee (among others) contribute their artwork.

FEATURING INTERVIEWS WITH 
Sue Benner, The Hon Ian Callinan, Robby Nason, Stephen Nothling, Jess Murphy, Daniel McKewen, Robert Andrew, Elise Greig, Michael Futcher (Matrix Theatre), David Morton (Dead Puppets Society), Lisa Fa’alafi & Leah Shelton (Polytoxic), Nasim Khosravi (Baran Theatre), and many more.

Metro Arts thanks the many interviewees and contributors who made this book possible by sharing their work and their memories.

Metro Arts is in the art starting business. After all ‘art starts here’.

For an annual tax deductible donation of $500 you can join our donor group, ART STARTERS, and help fund our annual Creative Development Program. 

The program gives artists space, time and support to develop creative ideas and test them with industry professionals and peers. Creative development can advance to local, national and international stages.

2020 Creative Development Program

As one of our Art Starters you’ll experience and learn about the creative process first-hand at special behind the scenes previews and get-togethers.

Join us by giving now or download the Art Starters Gift Form and return to us.

For further information please contact: 
Genevieve Trace, General Manager
genevieve@metroarts.com.au | (07) 3002 7100

See the list of current Art Starters here.

Thank you! We look forward to seeing you at our next Art Starters get-together.

JOIN ART STARTERS

Metro Arts is a registered charity with ACNC, which means any donation you make over $2 is tax-deductible.